5 exhibitions celebrating female creatives, from Marilyn Monroe to Frida Kahlo
From Björk’s grief-tinged ‘Echolalia’ to Marina Abramović making history in Venice, these shows shine a light on women who shaped contemporary culture
As in most fields, women in art have often been pushed to the margins and left woefully under-represented. It was only during the Renaissance, still most celebrated for the works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, that women artists such as Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana gained some recognition.
Yet barriers persist today. In her 1971 essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”, Linda Nochlin identified the structural and institutional obstacles that kept women outside the art world. Her critique continues to ring true.
More recently, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington reported that women now make up 51 per cent of visual artists worldwide, yet their work is rarely seen in public, with 78 per cent of London galleries still showing more male than female artists.